Confessor Peter of Alcantara

Saint Peter of Alcántara was born in 1499 at Alcántara in Extremadura, then in the Crown of Castile. His father, Pedro Garavito, was a nobleman and governor of the town; his mother was María Vilela de Sanabria. After early studies he attended the University of Salamanca. At about sixteen he entered the Observant Franciscans and took the name Peter. He was ordained a priest in the 1520s. From early in religious life he was known for extreme bodily austerity, long nocturnal vigils, and a gift for spiritual counsel.

He served as guardian of several Franciscan houses and in 1538 became provincial of the Observant province of Saint Gabriel in Extremadura. Convinced that the Franciscan rule was being kept too loosely, he withdrew for a time to eremitical life and then promoted a reform of strictest poverty. Friars of this movement went unshod, occupied very small cells, kept perpetual abstinence from meat, and slept only a few hours. New houses of the reform were founded in the 1550s, papal authorization followed, and a distinct province—later called the Province of Saint Joseph, or the Alcantarine Franciscans—was erected. Peter also wrote a short Treatise on Prayer and Meditation that circulated widely in the sixteenth century.

In the early 1560s he examined the mystical experiences of Teresa of Ávila, judged them authentic, and encouraged her Carmelite reform. Teresa later wrote of him with great reverence and reported that he appeared to her after death to strengthen her. He spent his last years governing the new province while continuing penance and contemplation. He died on 18 October 1562 at the convent of Arenas, now Arenas de San Pedro in the province of Ávila.

A cult spread quickly in Spain and in the Spanish overseas territories. Pope Gregory XV beatified him in 1622, and Pope Clement IX canonized him on 28 April 1669. His feast is kept on 19 October. He is invoked as a patron of Brazil and of Extremadura and, because of his extraordinary vigils, of night watchmen. His relics are venerated at Arenas de San Pedro. The Alcantarine observance remained a distinct Franciscan family until later unions of the Observant branches of the order.